


Boats Against the Current

by Emejig16



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Great Gatsby spoilers honestly, Kissing, M/M, Teacher Dan Howell, Teacher Phil, Teacher/Teacher relationship, The Great Gatsby References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-16 19:07:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13060287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emejig16/pseuds/Emejig16
Summary: Dan is a literature teacher who loves his job more than anything in the world, but then things get a little difficult when his former high school boyfriend gets a job as the new media director, and well Dan isn’t exactly happy to see him again.





	Boats Against the Current

**PROMPT** :  
  


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“Alright class, I want you to forget everything you think you know about literature. Every English class you’ve been in has not studied literature the way it was intended. I suppose we’ve been doing this since the beginning of the year, but paying attention to the language of this next book is going to be very important,” Mr. Howell explained to his English class, pacing the front of the class.

Dan had been teaching Literature for nearly three years now and it was honestly the greatest job he could have ever gotten after leaving university. Since the day he first learned how to read he knew he loved words. His intense appreciation for language only deepened throughout his teenager years when he found himself reciting Shakespeare, performing in plays and just generally enjoying English class despite the millions of papers and tests he didn’t really care for. But when it came to the books, and getting to read them, well that never really bothered him.

It was an honor to have landed a job–no have a class that seemed to share his love of words like him. There was nothing he loved to do every day more than to wake up at seven am and be in his classroom by eight thirty with a mug of coffee, ready for the day to start at nine.

“Guys,” Dan started as he sat down on his desk. He picked up the book. “This book right here, _The Great Gatsby_ by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is easily one of my favorite books. And not because of the plot. You’ll find that when you read the book it’s going to be very easy to follow, but that’s not why I love this. Fitzgerald has beautiful language, it’s almost poetic in a sense, and I want you all to be paying attention to that as you read. That’s where the real reward of this book lies.”

He took a sip of his now cooled coffee and smiled, “Read chapters one and two for tomorrow, but before I set you loose to your other classes, a quick background on the book and Fitzgerald for the last fifteen minutes.”

By the time lunch rolled around, Dan was in really good mood and then along the way to the teacher’s lounge he ran into the last person he wanted to see on any day. Six foot two, new Director of Media studies, former high school sweetheart he thought he would never have to see ever again.

“Dan? Dan? Is that you?” Dan heard, quickening his steps, determined not to start a conversation. He muttered a few swear words as he heard the click of his heels quickly approaching him and slowed down for him to catch up.

“Hey there Phil,” Dan greeted reluctantly, with a forced smile.

“Isn’t this crazy…seeing you here,” Phil said.

“I work here.”

“Yeah but you know. Like after high school and–” Phil cleared his throat. “So uh how have you been?”

“I’ve been fine. How do you like it here at Meadowbook High?” Dan asked as the two of them entered the teacher’s lounge.

“Oh it’s great so far. Yeah the environment is just really great here…uh really good aura,” Phil replied.

“Right,” Dan replied, swiftly turning away from Phil to make himself another cup of coffee.

Phil gave a nod. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting. He and Dan hadn’t exactly ended school on great terms. After they’d graduated and went to university together, they thought it would be this cute highschool romance through the years, but then things went to shit, and it ended catastrophically.

Until this moment, they hadn’t really talked to each other for almost three years, not that this could be considered an actual conversation, but it was something.

“So I’ll see you around? I guess?” Phil asked as Dan finished making his coffee and then walked out of the lounge.

Dan couldn’t believe it. What happened to not seeing the people who you went to school with ever again? He thought he’d put that part of his life behind him, moved away from it all and was finally fully surrounded by things he loved, made him feel inspired and anything but the stupid anger and betrayal it took him forever to get over.

A heartache that he got over with books and diction, and not other people. He hasn’t seen anyone since breaking up with Phil, not that that mattered or anything. All he needed was Hemingway, Orwell, Shakespeare, Milton, Steinbeck, Coleridge, Keats, Rowling for the third time, Green– just name any author and he’s probably read and cried into the book.

Bottom line, he’s come too far to fall into another snare.

-

“So class, you’ve read chapters one and two. Two chapters that parallel each other in a very peculiar way. We have two very distinct party scenes, the first with Daisy and Tom, and the second with Tom and Myrtle. Talk to me about it. I want to hear your thoughts,” Dan said to his class, which had been arranged in a circle.

“Ah yes, Skylar.”

“Yeah, okay well I actually have a question for the class. Uh, so Myrtle is Tom’s mistress and it is evident that Daisy and Tom don’t exactly have the best connection as seen in chapter one. Do you think that Tom loves Myrtle?” Skylar asked.

Another student raised their hand to respond. “Go on Elise,” Dan said.

“Uh, no I don’t think he loves Myrtle anymore than he loves Daisy. I mean, Tom punches her and breaks her nose when she is bad mouthing Daisy’s name. Wouldn’t that suggest that he loves Daisy to some degree? Maybe he isn’t very showy about it, but he does hold some respect for her and she means something to him.”

“Or maybe,” another student, Aaron, interjected, “Maybe he’s just loyal to her. Think about it, the two of them are two powerhouse blue blood families being joined together. All she is to him is a trophy wife, he doesn’t care about her like the way you guys like to make it sound. This concept of ‘love’ doesn’t exist like you want it to in the book.”

Dan had zoned out and was busy thinking about the past. Well, not thinking about it as so much fuming about it. If he didn’t know any better he’d interrupt this whole discussion and comment on how much of a scum bag men like Tom were and how all they were good for was twisting people around their fingers and leaving when things start getting messy. Of course aside from being unprofessional, that would also be a serious spoiler for the book too.

So, for the day he sat back and let his class steer pretty much all of the discussion, interjecting and bringing them back on track when needed, but it was a long fifty minutes. Something he’d never thought he’d say in his English class. He had the class wrap up when there was five minutes left until the bell rang.

“Okay, great discussion guys. I think we touched on a lot of great things to consider as we go through the book. Read only chapter three for tomorrow and I want you to look for a quote that stands out to you. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

After the bell had rung, Dan sat down on his desk and placed his head down with a sigh. Everything was terrible, just terrible. It had only been a day and he was already unraveling. There was a knock at his door and he snapped his head up.

“Come in,” Dan said, fixing his hair.

“Hey there– friend,” Phil said walking in.

“Oh my god,” Dan mumbled under his breath.

“You have lunch this hour right?” Phil added as he walked more into the room, running into a desk along the way.

“Yes.” Dan said coldly, pulling out a file of papers he needed to grade and uncapping a pen.

“I was wondering if you wanted to get lunch with me?”

“No, I have some essays to grade.”

“So you’re not going to eat?”

“Can you just leave right now?” Dan posed more as a direct command than a question.

“Yeah–uh I’m sorry. I’ll just go then.” Phil replied quietly with a slight wave before walking out.

Dan groaned, he really was hungry but not hungry enough to even entertain the idea of going to lunch with Phil. After about ten minutes had passed he snuck out of his room and took the long route round to get a salad, just to avoid passing Phil’s classroom.

As he ate his salad at his desk, he realized he was just as tragic as the character his students were going to finally meet.

-

“Alright Phoebe, which quote did you select?”

“I picked this quote that Nick (the narrator of the book) says just after he meets Gatsby: “ _Sometime before he introduced himself I’d got a strong impression that he was picking his words with care_ ,” she recited.

“Interesting, why did you pick that? Why did that stand out to you?”

“I don’t know, I guess so far in the story not much has been revealed about Gatsby and I feel it adds this weird mood to the story with the rumors of murder, the phone calls that interrupt his conversation with Nick and I suppose his elaborate parties,” she explained.

“I like the way you’re thinking. You know, you’re going to find that Gatsby is very complex and what he does and says is to be looked at, even though it may seem like it’s completely irrelevant, but then again that is just my personal opinion,” Dan explained.

“Alright, the rest of the period is a work day. Chapter four is due not tomorrow, we have a quiz and short answer essay tomorrow over what we’ve read so far, but chapter four for Friday,” Dan said.

-

To Dan’s relief Wednesday passed by without Phil bothering him. Maybe he’d taken the hint that he didn’t want anything to do with him. Thursday was almost the same except he’d bothered him in the morning before class started.

“Do you maybe uh, want to get coffee sometime?” Phil asked hopefully.

“I’m drinking coffee right now.” Dan replied before taking a bite out of the muffin he had.

“I mean, later. Like, maybe–maybe lunch. What if we, I don’t know maybe get something to eat on Friday after school?”

“No.”

“What about Saturday?”

“Definitely not.”

“Work with me Dan.”

“Why? Just because we work at the same school and see each other now does not mean we have to do anything. We can be co-workers that happen to see each other, ya know polite wave or something but that’s it.”

“You need to backup your hard drive. New initiative to protect school documents. I was going to be sending an email, but since you’re right here I decided I’d just tell you now.” Phil said, his tone changing to one of business.

-

Dan was beginning to think that maybe he was being too harsh. The past was the past and that didn’t mean that they couldn’t meet or–what the hell was he saying. By Friday he wasn’t sure what he thought he was feeling.

“Okay class. Chapter four, shoot,” Dan said with a smile as he waved the book around. “It’s Friday, but I think today’s an interesting class ‘cause things are getting good.”

“Are they really?” Tim, one of his students, replied sarcastically.

“Yes. Now, why don’t you sum up this chapter for us Tim since you seem to have a lot to say,” Dan sassed.

Tim rolled his eyes, “Right so Gatsby and Nick hang out with some sleazy guy, but before they get to the place where they meet Gatsby tells Nick about himself or something. I guess the only point of this chapter is that we learn that Gatsby, you know that guy who’s supposed to be great or something, used to have a thing with Daisy, who is now a married woman and wants to meet up with her again.”

“Good summary…I guess…. You’ve left some details out that kind of matter…. But yeah, do you think it’s appropriate for them to meet again?”

“I guess. I don’t see why you can’t see someone from your past,” Tim replied. “I mean what’s the worse that can happen?”

“Chapter five for Monday. Get into your small groups and discuss or something,” Dan quickly said before going to his desk.

When the bell rang Dan walked outside of his classroom and–was he seriously going to do this? He was being completely irrational, there was no need for them to do anything together. He wasn’t in a novel and was not about to take advice from a fifteen year old. Plus it wasn’t even advice he was just answering a question about the book.

But he wasn’t really listening to his head, because his legs still carried him to Phil’s room. Dan knocked lightly on Phil’s open door and leaned in the doorway. Phil was busy tinkering with something on the projector.

“Uh hey Phil,” Dan greeted awkwardly.

“Oh, hey–Hey there Dan,” Phil said, his voice instantly rising in pitch. “Ah do you need something?”

“Yeah, well no. I mean, if you still wanted to or something, I just wanted to take up your offer to eat something after school,” Dan said, picking his words carefully.

“Yeah, I’d love to. I found this great cafe not too far from the school that we could go to.”

“Okay we can just go right after class ends or something.”

“Sounds perfect, I’ll swing by your room at three,” Phil said with a smile.

“Okay see you then.”

When the bell rang ending the school day, Dan considered sprinting out of his classroom and to his car. Their meeting was going to be just awful. It was a horrendous idea, that was destined to end in disaster, Dan was sure of it.

-

The scrape of a fork along the edge of a plate, the sound of chewing and the sound of ice swirling around a glass, clinking against the wall was the only thing that was breaking the unrelenting silence of their meeting.

Dan didn’t want to talk and that’s all Phil wanted to do, but he was hitting the wrong topics, trying too hard to ask about what’s been happening in his life these days, and how everyone still was and other painful shallow conversation starters you use to try and break the ice.

Phil set down his glass. “Dan what are we doing?” he asked.

“Eating?”

“No, I mean why are you so hostile towards me?”

“I’m not being hostile.”

“Yeah you’re right I’m sorry. Excuse me for wanting to catch up and you’re doing nothing except giving short one word answers. I get it Dan, you don’t want anything more to do with me, but I just figured that since we’re back in the same area and we were going to be seeing each other it wouldn’t hurt to try.”

“I’m going to go. Here’s some cash, I’ll pay you whatever more on Monday…I just I have to go,” Dan said, getting up from the table and starting for the exit.

“Dan wait, I didn’t mean–” Phil said, before sitting back down with a heavy sigh. He was determined to make something right about this.

-

“Mr. Howell, what the hell was chapter five?” Alexis asked.

“You mean that awkward party between Daisy, Gatsby and Tom, I know,” Dan gushed with a giggle.

“Yes. Oh my god, and then he gave her a tour of his mansion? And what about that ending where they’re like being all flirty and shit and then Nick just walks out. Honestly, he’s just third wheeling for life!” Aaron replied, laughing.

“Can anything even be that awkward in real life?” Skylar added.

“Yes.” Dan said a little too quickly, thinking over the part of a meal he’d had with Phil. He cleared his throat. “I mean you kids would know that….with your awkward situations and stuff,” he added, taking a not so nonchalant sip of his coffee.

“Mr. Howell you’re not that much older than any of us?” Tim retorted.

“Anyways back to the book. It’s occurred to me that we have not really talked about the language of the book. I want you guys to go through the whole book and find a quote that is poetic in nature. We will present those sometime next week, and I believe we’ll be done with the book by then. But, back to chapter five.”

-

On Monday Dan had a meeting during lunch, so he didn’t have to see Phil and after what had happened on Friday, Dan was determined to avoid Phil and act like that never happened. That was terrible and he didn’t know what he was going to say about it or explain why he had to leave, but he had no idea.  

Quite frankly, Dan didn’t actually know why he couldn’t talk to Phil, he’d just rather do anything else. Sure, he was being childish but he was perfectly okay with that. To his dismay, he did run into Phil after the meeting, and instead of turning the other way he figured just walking wouldn’t kill him.

“What’s that book you have there?” Phil asked as he walked with Dan.

“You mean this book?” Dan replied holding up _the Great Gatsby_.

“Yeah, it looks interesting.”

“Stop trying.”

“No honestly, there are some eyes on the cover, I’m interested.”

“Then read it.” Dan replied, slapping the book into Phil’s hand.

“Okay, I will. But I’m not English teacher, so I’m going to want to discuss it with you just to you know, share my thoughts. I’ve heard a little bit about this book, so I’m curious to see what kind of fuss is about.”

“Alright.” Dan replied, trying extremely hard not to smile. As much as he wanted to act like he hated Phil, when his favorite book came into play, he wasn’t about to act like he didn’t want to talk about it.

-

By the time Friday rolled around, Dan hadn’t had any interaction with Phil aside from asking him how he liked the book, which seemed to be going pretty well. That was the only good thing he was really getting out of them sort of interacting again.

He hadn’t come to talk to him about the book yet, which was kind of a bummer but he wasn’t going to admit that he actually did want to sit down and talk about the book with him just to see what was turning in his head.

“Alright class, let me tell you about James Gatz aka the original drafter of the infamous Jay Gatsby. Gatsby isn’t a real person, he is the product of a poor kid dreaming of a lifestyle that would help him accomplish his dreams. I have a quote to read to you guys that stands out to me.

_“But his heart was in a constant, turbulent riot. The most grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted him in his bed at night. A universe of ineffable gaudiness spun itself out in his brain while the clock ticked on the washstand and the moon soaked with wet light his tangled clothes upon the floor. Each night he added to the pattern of his fancies until drowsiness close down upon some vivid scene with an oblivious embrace._

Dan paused, _“For a while these reveries provided an outlet for his imagination; they were a satisfactory hint of the unreality of reality, a promise that the rock of the world was founded securely on a fairy’s wing_.”

He paced around his desk, leaving the class in silence to ponder over what he’d just read to them. “Jay Gatsby was never meant to exist. It was merely a persona that he’d dreamt of when he was boy on hard times doing odd jobs. He’d made himself out of a dream, one driven to escape his farm boy life and make it somewhere. He’d invested all of himself in that dream, and had almost put himself in a tunnel vision to get to what everyone sees,” Dan explained.

“Yes Elise, do you have something to add?” Dan asked.

“Yeah, but it’s not about this part of the chapter. It has to do with the flashback to where Daisy and Gatsby first kiss. Specifically this last line: “ _Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed for him like a flower and the incarnation was complete._ ” I don’t really have that much to say about it, but I thought it was beautiful. You’ve been talking about how Fitzgerald has this gorgeous wording of things, but I feel like this is visual. Like you can see the fireworks, and maybe Gatsby feeling like his dream had finally been completed back then,” she explained.

Dan smiled and nodded, “That’s a good way to look at the text. You know I’d never really looked at that part of the book like that.”

-

After that class Dan found himself a little on edge. He wasn’t sure why but his stress kind of just skyrocketed and everything seemed to be going to shit. Maybe it was because he did not have his coffee today, or if it was chapter six which always just particularly made him sad all the time, due to the fact that Daisy doesn’t really enjoy herself at Gatsby’s party and he doesn’t know why that always bothered him but it did.

“Hey Dan do you have a minute? Please can you just stop for a minute and can we just talk. Please?” Phil asked nicely when he saw Dan walking down the hallway.

“Phil I don’t get it. I don’t know what the hell you fucking want from me. Whatever we had is over with, that was over three years ago and I don’t want to talk about it. You hurt me so much and I have invested way too much time not feeling anything towards you, the subject relationships all of that so if you could kindly fuck off,” Dan asserted.

“You’re not being fair. When did it once come out of my mouth that I wanted to talk about what happened between us?”

“I know you Phil. Maybe I didn’t do as well in class as you, but I’m not fucking stupid.”

“Oh my god,” Phil replied with an incredulous laugh, “Are you kidding me? You have not changed a bit. You still refuse to listen to what I have to say. You know maybe if you got your head out of your little fictional fantasy world maybe you’d hear what people say to you.”

“You want to talk? Fine let’s fucking talk.” Dan snapped, dragging Phil into a supply closet.

“Watch your language, we’re still in a school,” Phil replied as Dan shoved him inside and slammed the door. “Okay Dan, relax.” Phil said quietly.

“I am relaxed. Now what did you want to talk about so fucking badly that you’ve been bothering me for the last couple of weeks about?”

“Well I suppose–” Phil started.

“I don’t give a shit. You don’t give a shit either. You spit on my heart and jumped on it a thousand times and have the audacity to act like nothing happened. Maybe, just maybe I wouldn’t still be so mad at you if you would just fess up to what you did and be honest about it then maybe I’d have some closure and would want to talk to you.”

“That’s not what this is about.”

“Well that’s what this is about now.”

“Dan I told you, I never cheated on you. That was never true–”

“I can’t believe you Phil. I can’t believe that you would continue to lie like this after all of these goddamn years where–”

And then everything seemed to move in a blurred slow motion, and the next thing he knew there were a set of hands on his cheeks, and a set of lips that could make him feel a thousand and one things except for happy on any day ever since their last meet.

Phil pulled away. “I’m sorry Dan. Don’t cry, class starts again in like ten minutes,” he mumbled wiping a few of his stray tears with his thumb.

“You’re an ass.”

“And you won’t listen to me. I’m not lying to you Dan, I never cheated on you. That party, where you saw Kyle kiss me, was not how you think it was. Kyle was drunk off his ass and he was talking to me about god knows what and then the next thing I knew his lips were all over mine, and I was trying to push him away, but you saw before I could. And then you ran off and wouldn’t listen to me explain because you were so convinced that I was trying to hook up with Kyle that you wouldn’t listen to me.”

“I’m still mad at you. You’re making me cry again, and I have a class to teach so they’re definitely going to be able to tell.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry, and I’ll say it a thousand time until you know that I’m being honest. I’m sorry for whatever pain I’ve put you in over the years. I never meant you any harm, and I’ll leave you alone like you want me to.”

-

“Chapter seven, and everything comes bubbling to the surface and it all goes to shit. Tell me about it because I don’t want to,” Dan said as he sat down at his desk.

“Something wrong Mr. Howell?” Alexis asked.

“Nope. Now, Someone summarize this chapter or do something with it. It’s a huge argument and confrontation scene. Where Tom, Daisy’s husband, effectively ends whatever last remaining things Gatsby and Daisy had or are having. He exposes Gatsby’s messy past and kills his persona and his dreams in one afternoon. He puts Gatsby back in his place almost and it is just brutal. He metaphorically kills Gatsby and he has nothing.

“So talk about that or something I don’t know. Get into your small groups so yeah,” Dan said, breaking out his laptop.

Dan wanted nothing more than to slam his head repeatedly into the keyboard. It had been two days since the incident and he still felt like shit about it. He thought he had things all figured out and had the right frame of mind and everything but he didn’t.

And that was awful.

He was so wrapped up in the past that he’d lost sight of the present and what was actually happening now, and what was happening was someone was trying to make proper amends from the past.

-

It wasn’t until Thursday that he worked up the courage to go and talk to Phil about what had happened, and to apologize. He was honestly starting to feel like a major asswipe and wanted to not. Phil had been nothing but nice to him and he was trying so hard to get some approval from him.

There was a lot of truth to what Phil was saying and he had to admit he wasn’t trying to listen. He was so certain that everything he knew was correct and that there was no other way to look at anything. Maybe he had distorted the past and solidified it.

“Hey Phil,” Dan said quietly, holding tightly onto his laptop as he walked into his room.

“Dan.” Phil replied, not diverting his attention to the typing he was doing.

“There’s something wrong with my laptop. I can’t get it to–”

“I know there’s nothing wrong with your laptop.”

“Look Phil–”

“If you’re here to rip me a new one, I don’t want to hear it. I’m done; I’ve stepped off like you wanted me to. I’m going to leave you alone. I apologize for what I did in that supply closet, that was strictly unprofessional and–”

Dan grabbed Phil by his tie, and pulled his lips into his, and Phil’s breathless, his pulse beating hard and fast under Dan’s lips. Dan can Phil feel him kissing him back, his whole body surging upward like he’s been starving for it. When Dan pulled away they kind of just stared at each other for a solid minute not saying anything.

Phil swallowed thickly, “I finished the book.”

“Already?”

“Couldn’t put it down. I was interested in it, and wanted an excuse to talk to you,” Phil confessed with a sheepish grin.

Dan smiled and let out a chuckle, “How about we be pretentious as hell, go to Starbucks and talk about the book sometime?”

“I would like that, a lot,” Phil replied softly.

“But, there is something seriously wrong with my projector, it’s not allowing me to connect so if you could–”

“Yeah I can totally take a look at that now.”

-

“Okay you guys, it’s been two weeks and now we’re done with the book. Chapter eight, we have Gatsby’s death–”

“He dies?!” Tim exclaimed.

“You didn’t read the book?” Dan said incredulously.

“I did. I just didn’t finish it,” Tim said quietly.

“Right, okay. So Gatsby dies, he gets shot in his pool and chapter nine we have this tragic funeral and the wrapping up of the story. So, it’s all over. Talk to me about the whole book actually no, I have a question, no wait I have a quote. It’s from chapter eight.

“ _So, he made the most of his time. He took what he could get, ravenously and unscrupulously–eventually he took Daisy one still October night, took her because he had no real right to touch her hand,”_ Dan read before closing the book.

“Go ahead Skylar.”

“So at the end of the chapter it becomes evident that Gatsby has in fact made the most of his reign. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried to rekindle those days, his past and possible future with Daisy was gone and no amount of his mysterious yet oddly hospitable and charming persona had run its course too. He had all the parties, all the fans but in the end he was still James Gatz and he couldn’t run from that,” he explained.

“But that’s not to say that it couldn’t have worked out between them,” Tim added.

“She was a married woman with a child.” Dan added.

“Well if the circumstances were different?” Tim asked.

“Okay, that’s enough out of you. But yeah. Gatsby had this sad funeral. After having these beautiful parties no one came, and that’s because no one cared enough to actually get to know the man. But those who truly cared, like his father and Nick, who was probably the most invested in his “case”. I don’t know where I’m going with any of this, but you know. The End,” Dan explained messily.

He didn’t actually care too much about discussing the book with his class because he was saving all of his really good ideas for Phil. It was probably poor teaching practice, but he had bright students. They’d be fine to discuss it among themselves or something.

-

“One grande Iced White Chocolate Mocha, and one grande Caramel Macchiato.”

“Really the table in the corner?” Phil commented.

“Why not?” Dan said with a giggle.

“Whatever I want to talk about this book right now. It’s killing me. Nick is not a trustworthy narrator at all! He covered up a murder and then proceeded to live his life. When he knew it all, but that’s not what stands out to me in this book.”

“No?” Dan asked curiously as he took a sip of his drink.

“No. I think about Nick and the girlfriend he picks up; Jordan Baker. I like how he first describes himself trying not to give in to her. This quote right here:  

_“Her gray, sun strained eyes stared straight ahead, but she had deliberately shifted our relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her. But I am slow thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires, and I knew that first I had to get myself definitely out of that tangle back home. I’d been writing letters once a week and signing them: “Love Nick”, and all I could think of was how, when that certain girl played tennis, a faint mustache of perspiration appeared on her upper lip. Nevertheless there was a vague understanding that I had to be tactfully broken off before I was free.”_

“I feel like it shows how much he was into her. You know, he was determined to put the girl he had back home in order and do what was needed, for him to fully be with her, because he knew he had something special in his grasp. And because he loved this girl so much she was creeping into the little things and it was beginning to occur to him that he needed her in his life.”

Dan smiled, “Yeah.”

“What do you say Dan, can we try this again one more time?” Phil asked hopefully. “I know it’s been a while, but not a day goes by that where I don’t think of what could’ve been.”

“Well, like Jordan said herself:

_“You said a bad driver was only safe until she met another bad driver? Well, I met another bad driver, didn’t I? I mean it was careless of me to make such a wrong guess. I thought you were rather an honest, straightforward person. I thought it was your secret pride.”_

“Sounds like you’re criticizing me?” Phil said with a light hearted chuckle.

“No, I am. I am effectively crushing your ethos. I’m not going to date you, but I’m willing to be your friend again.”

“So is that a maybe?”

“Don’t push it.” Dan said flirtatiously.

“Okay sorry sorry. But back to the book–” Phil said.

“What do you think makes Gatsby so great?”

“Well, old sport…”

-

_“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald_

 

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was originally written and posted in March of 2015.
> 
> Thank you to Maetaurus for betaing this fic.


End file.
